Editing Parachute (section)

=== Early Renaissance ===
[[File:Conical Parachute, 1470s, British Museum Add. MSS 34,113, fol. 200v.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The oldest known depiction of a parachute, attributed to [[Francesco di Giorgio Martini]] (Italy, 1470s)]]

The earliest evidence for the true parachute dates back to the [[Renaissance]] period.<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 466">{{harnvb|White|1968|p=466}}</ref> The oldest parachute design appears in a manuscript from the 1470s attributed to [[Francesco di Giorgio Martini]] (British Library, Add MS 34113, fol. 200v), showing a free-hanging man clutching a crossbar frame attached to a conical canopy.<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 462f.">{{harnvb|White|1968|pp=462f.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/leonardo-man-saved-science-leonardo-really-invent-parachute/3479/ | title=Leonardo, the Man Who Saved Science ~ Did Leonardo Really Invent the Parachute? &#124; Secrets of the Dead &#124; PBS | website=[[PBS]] | date=4 April 2017 }}</ref> As a safety measure, four straps ran from the ends of the rods to a waist belt.  Although the surface area of the parachute design appears to be too small to offer effective air resistance and the wooden base-frame is superfluous and potentially harmful, the basic concept of a working parachute is apparent.<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 465"/>

The design is a marked improvement over another folio (189v), which depicts a man trying to break the force of his fall using two long cloth streamers fastened to two bars, which he grips with his hands.<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 465">{{harnvb|White|1968|p=465}}</ref>

Shortly after, a more sophisticated parachute was sketched by the [[polymath]] [[Leonardo da Vinci]] in his ''[[Codex Atlanticus]]'' (fol. 381v) dated to {{circa|1485}}.<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 462f."/> Here, the scale of the parachute is in a more favorable proportion to the weight of the jumper. A square wooden frame, which alters the shape of the parachute from conical to pyramidal, held open Leonardo's canopy.<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 465"/> It is not known whether the Italian inventor was influenced by the earlier design, but he may have learned about the idea through the intensive oral communication among [[Renaissance technology|artist-engineers of the time]].<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 465f.">{{harnvb|White|1968|pp=465f.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Marc |last=van den Broek |author-link=Marc van den Broek |title=Leonardo da Vinci Spirits of Invention. A Search for Traces |publisher=A.TE.M. |location=[[Hamburg]] |isbn=978-3-00-063700-1 |date=2019 |language=en}}</ref> The feasibility of Leonardo's pyramidal design was successfully tested in 2000 by [[British people|Briton]] [[Adrian Nicholas]] and again in 2008 by the Swiss skydiver Olivier Vietti-Teppa.<ref>{{cite news |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/808246.stm |title=Da Vinci's Parachute Flies |year=2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |publisher=[[Fox News]] |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/swiss-man-safely-uses-leonardo-da-vinci-parachute |title=Swiss Man Safely Uses Leonardo da Vinci Parachute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421072140/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352917,00.html |archive-date=21 April 2010 |url-status=live |year=2008}}</ref> According to historian of technology [[Lynn White]], these conical and pyramidal designs, much more elaborate than early artistic jumps with rigid [[parasol]]s in Asia, mark the origin of "the parachute as we know it."<ref name="Lynn White 1968, 466"/>
[[File:Homo Volans.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Fausto Veranzio]]'s parachute design, titled ''Homo Volans'' ("Flying Man"), from his ''Machinae Novae'' ("New Contraptions", published in 1615 or 1616)]]

The [[Croats|Croatian]] polymath and inventor [[Fausto Veranzio]], or Faust Vrančić (1551–1617), examined da Vinci's parachute sketch and kept the square frame but replaced the canopy with a bulging sail-like piece of cloth that he came to realize decelerates a fall more effectively.<ref name=" Lynn White 1968, 465"/> A now-famous depiction of a parachute that he dubbed ''Homo Volans'' (Flying Man), showing a man parachuting from a tower, presumably [[St Mark's Campanile]] in [[Venice]], appeared in his book on mechanics, ''Machinae Novae'' ("New Machines", published in 1615 or 1616), alongside a number of other devices and technical concepts.<ref name="World in Air">{{cite book |first=Francis Trevelyan |last=Miller |author-link=Francis Trevelyan Miller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdDNAAAAMAAJ |title=The world in the air: the story of flying in pictures |publisher=[[G.P. Putnam's Sons]] |year=1930 |pages=101–106 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

It was once widely believed that in 1617, Veranzio, then aged 65 and seriously ill, implemented his design and tested the parachute by jumping from St Mark's Campanile,<ref name="Paratroops">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/HesInTheParatroopsNow |title=He's in the paratroops now |first=Alfred Day |last=Rathbone |location=New York |publisher=[[Robert M. McBride & Company]] |year=1943 |via=[[University of California]], [[Internet Archive]] |access-date=5 December 2022}}</ref> from a bridge nearby,<ref name="Croatian Language">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kWNmVnolz0C&pg=PA8 |last=Bogdanski |first=René |title=The Croatian Language by Example |year=2007 |quote=[As an example for [[Synchronic analysis|Diachronic analysis]]:] "One of his most important inventions, is, without doubt, the parachute, which he experimented and tested on himself, by jumping off a bridge in Venice. As documented by the English bishop John Wilkins (1614–1672) 30 years later, in his book ''Mathematical Magic'' published in London in 1648." |page=8 |publisher=GRIN Verlag |isbn=9783638740869 |via=Google Books}}</ref> or from [[St. Martin's Cathedral, Bratislava|St Martin's Cathedral]] in [[Bratislava]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.321chutelibre.fr/parachute/parachute-1.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120204857/http://www.321chutelibre.fr/parachute/parachute-1.php |archive-date=20 January 2012 |title=Parachute |website=321chutelibre |language=fr}}</ref> Various publications incorrectly claimed the event was documented some thirty years later by [[John Wilkins]], one of the founders of, and secretary of, the [[Royal Society]] in [[London]], in his book ''[[Mathematical Magick|Mathematical Magick or, the Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanical Geometry]]'', published in London in 1648.<ref name="Croatian Language" /> However, Wilkins wrote about flying, not parachutes, and does not mention Veranzio, a parachute jump, or any event in 1617. Doubts about this test, which include a lack of written evidence, suggest it never occurred, and was instead a misreading of historical notes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aero.com/publications/parachutes/9511/pc1195.htm |title=Parachuting |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117014746/http://www.aero.com/publications/parachutes/9511/pc1195.htm |archive-date=17 November 2015 |website=Aero.com |quote=Like his countryman's concept, Veranzio's seems to have remained an idea only. Though his idea was greatly publicized, no evidence has been found that there ever was a homo volans of his or any other time who tested and proved Veranzio's plan.}}</ref>